Losing Grip
by HazelNuit
Summary: Evan aka Evangelia moves in right across the street from the Mannings/Sammlers. She becomes friends with both Eli and Grace but will she come between them? Can she solve her own problems?
1. New Girl

Losing Grip  
  
Characters: -Eli Sammler- Age 18 -Grace Manning- Age 14 -Evangelia {Evan}, Joaquinn- Age 17 -Jessie Sammler- Age 13  
  
A/N: I never watched the show once and again, but I am a fan of Shane West and I saw a few clips online. I love his character so I decided to make a fic out of it. I read a few summaries and I hope I don't have a lot of things wrong. -Oh and I'm making Shane/Eli still be in school. Is he in school during the last season? I'm not sure but I'm making him a senior. -And does anyone know what town the show takes place in, because I'm making it winter. Aiii I should've watched the show.  
  
Here's goes!  
  
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Evangelia Joquinn also known as Evan nervously adjusted her messenger bag in front of her mirror. She wore a grey knitted cap over her head, apparently it was snowing outside so she figured she needed to keep her head warm. She pulled at her black baggy pants and twisted her foot around and slipped them into her black and grey adidas. Her blue streaks in her jet black hair not even showing, she turned her head and saw them when the light hit her head. She sighed and left her room going into the empty kitchen of the empty house. Her dad had already gone to work, as always, in New York he left early and now he did too.  
  
Why wasn't she surprised? Grabbing a bottle of water and a breakfast bar she put on her headphones and stuffed her breakfast into her bag. She walked quickly over to the bus stop, arriving just in time.  
  
When she entered the bus, everyone looked at her. None of them knew her apparently. Evan tried to ignore their stares and sat down in the back. No one bothered her during the entire ride.  
  
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Eli Sammler looked into the rearview at Grace and his sister Jessie. He was taking them to school. He pulled up the front door, "Okay we're here. Out." he said as the girls left the car. He quickly left the area to let the bus behind him park and he went to look for a parking space.  
  
As he was walking back to the school he noticed a girl about his age getting off the bus. SHe looked pretty different from the rest of the people. Wearing all black practically he could see her blue hair reflecting off the light. He grinned, that someone would come to this school dressed like a punk was more his thing. He walked past her and into the school.  
  
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Evan went into the main office and got her schedule, she arrived into her first class, Health. She arrived late.  
  
"Can I help you?" The teacher said, looking as if she was a criminal.  
  
"Uh yea, I'm new here. Is this the right class?" Evan said nervously thrusting her schedule to the teacher, who nodded and sniffled.  
  
"Just sit right over there. I'm going to call attendence in a minute." Evan nodded and sat in the only empty seat in the class, the last seat in the last row. Looking at the people around her, very few people were dressed differently, most of them were dressed like preps. At first glance she might have been considered a punk with her blue hair and black clothes but she was definitely not one. She wasn't spontaneous at all, she didn't have piercings, weirdly she hadn't even pierced her ears. She glanced at the guy next to her, he seemed the rocker type with his leather jacket and the smirk on his face.  
  
She sat down and took out her small binder, opening up a random section, waiting for the teacher to do the attendence.  
  
"Joyce Carimichael...Carrie Mitchells..." The teacher's voice droned on.  
  
"Evangelia Joaquinn?" She asked, and people looked at her. Evan raised her hand, and put it back down when the teacher acknowledged her.  
  
"Eli Sammler." and girls all turned to look at the guy next to her. Evan laughed to herself, well of course he was the player of the school, judging from the looks on all the girls faces. She had to admit he was very cute, but she wasn't the type of girl that dated guys. No guy had ever liked her, they only saw her as friends. She sighed to herself and started listening to Ms. Connelly who was giving her the few months work she should make up, according to her.  
  
15 minutes later, Ms. Connelly began describing a project she wanted everyone in the class to take a part in. After a thorough explanation, basically it was a marriage project in which everyone had to marry someone, when Ms. Connelly said she was picking the partners the entire class groaned. Evan groaned, she had already done this last month in New York, and she had been picked to worked with her friend in the project. It had been hell to figure out what they needed to buy and everything.  
  
As Ms. Connelly began reading off the partners names she came up to Evan.  
  
"Evangelia, you and Eli will work together." She stated, pausing to look at them. Evan turned to Eli and smiled slightly, as he did in return. At the end of class, Ms. Connelly instructed them to exchange numbers. They did and Evan left quickly not to be late for her next class.  
  
------------------------------ After school...  
  
As Eli waited for Grace and Jessie he saw the Evangelia girl getting onto the bus. She caught his eyes and she smiled a little. He smiled back, then Grace and Jessie got into his car, and he drove away.  
  
Evan sat by herself on the bus again thinking. Apparently Eli Sammler was a pretty popular guy with the girls. Even on her first day she had heard many rumors about him and the random girl of the week. She had met a nice girl, Grace Manning. Even though she was a freshman they met in gym class and found they both had a liking for soccer.  
  
Evan sighed, her first day hadn't been uneventful but she was sort of lonely. As an independent person she wouldn't say she missed her mother, or friends that much, but she was merely bored of not being able to talk to anyone, her father being away on a business trip again, as always.  
  
She dumped her messenger bag and jacket onto a kitchen chair and settled down in her room on her computer. Basically being online and listening to music was her life. Even back in New York she only had a best friend, and only a few other close friends.  
  
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Eli got home and threw his stuff down and went into the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. Rick came in.  
  
"Hey dad." Eli greeted him before stuffing a huge bite into his mouth.  
  
"Ms. Connelly called, she told me about your project. She says your grades are still failing." Rick said angrily. Eli rolled his eyes.  
  
"I want you to start working on the project today. Go call your partner and invite her over for dinner and I want to see some progress." Rick said, troubled. He didn't understand why his son was having a hard time learning.  
  
Eli shook his head, "I forgot to get her number." he said mumbling as crumbs fell from his mouth, hoping his excuse worked. Rick sighed and put a piece of paper on the table.  
  
"Don't even think about it. I have it right here...call her now." Rick said before leaving to greet his wife who just walked in the door. Eli groaned. He picked up the paper, it said, " Evangelia Joaquinn: 555-8967"  
  
Dialing the phone he waited for someone to pick up....  
  
Evan picked up the phone when it started ringing.  
  
"Hello?" Evan said.  
  
"Uh yea, Hi may I speak to Evangelia please?" Eli said politely.  
  
"This is her." Evan replied, wondering what guy would call her.  
  
"This is Eli Sammler, uh from your Health class. Ms. Connelly called my dad and told him about the project and he wanted us to work on the project today and he invited you over for dinner?" Eli said.  
  
"Umm, okay sure. Where do you live?" Evan asked, weirded out that he was asking her to go over to his house.  
  
"120-19 Emerald Avenue." Eli replied.  
  
"I live on Emerald too. 120-23" Evan said.  
  
"Oh..that's great. Just come over whenever." Eli said before hanging up. Evan stared at the phone, and groaned. {What had she just gotten herself into?} She put her away message on, and turned off her moniter and used her remote to shut off her loud music. Silence of course endured as she took out her books and left in some things she though she might need to work on their project. Pulling a navy blue hoodie over her tee-shirt she walked out the door, and across the street to Eli's house. She had no idea why she was so nervous. {Yea, maybe because no guy has ever invited you to their house...did I mention never?}  
  
Evan stood in front of the seemingly large house. Taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell.... 


	2. Damnit

Losing Grip: Chapter 2  
  
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A few seconds later, Evan took a deep breath as the door opened with a whoosh of air. A man in his forties smiled at her.  
  
"You must be Evangelia. I'm Eli's dad, you can call me Rick. Eli's..." he started when suddenly a voice called from inside the house.  
  
"Who is it?" Grace said walking towards the door. She saw Evan from her gym class, the same girl who had talked to her about soccer and had actually given her a few tips as well. "Hey Evan! What are you doing here? How'd you find out where I live?" Grace asked excitedly and curiously at the same time.  
  
"Well, actually..." Evan said but another door opened and Eli stepped out of it holding a guitar. He saw Evan.  
  
"Hey, you're here. We can work in my room." He said gesturing the open door. Grace looked surprised, and she didn't say a word just looked at Evan and then at Eli. Eli looked at Grace questioningly.  
  
"Okay, Evangelia is working on a project with Eli. So...uh I'll let you get to work." Rick said ushering Evan in and closing the door. "I'll call you two when the pizza's here. Your mom had to work late today."  
  
After making an excuse Grace went back upstairs to her room, Eli led Evan into his room which turned out to be the garage.  
  
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As Evan walked into his room, she felt as if she was walking into a whole different enviroment. Whilst the main room in the house was airy and bright, his room was dark with only a desk and a bed, clothing and things were shrewn everywhere. Evan almost laughed when she thought of her own room, which was a big mess as well.  
  
"Uh, take a seat anywhere." Eli said plopping down on his bed, he put his guitar behind him. Evan saw the broken in chair positioned on the floor and took a seat next to it. Evan looked everywhere but at him, uncomfortable in her situation. Her eyes rested on his guitar.  
  
"So...you play guitar?" Evan asked, while thinking to herself, {Duh! Why does he have one if he doesn't play it?} Eli seemed to not be as bored as before and he leaned foward.  
  
"Yea...do you?"  
  
Evan nodded but then shrugged. "Sort of, I'm kinda bad though." She said embarassed. Eli lifted his guitar off the bed and handed it gingerly to her.  
  
"Play something."  
  
"Umm.." Evan thought, but adjusted the guitar on her knee. Strumming a few chords she started a song that her friend had taught her. She had only started playing the guitar for two years and she wasn't that good yet. Evan hummed the melody to the song and felt the notes floating in the air beautifuly. She stopped.  
  
"That was pretty good. You wrote that?" Eli asked. Evan shook her head.  
  
"My friend did." Evan answered and Eli nodded his head as if he understood. After a moment of silence they began hesitantly talking about music and bands. It seemed as if they had a few things in common.  
  
One hour later a knock suddenly sounded. Eli called, "Yea?"  
  
"It's me." A girl's voice said. His door opened and a petite blond girl walked in. She looked at Evan and at Eli.  
  
"Uh Jess this is Evan." Eli introduced. "This is my sister."  
  
"Hi." Evan said friendly waving her hand lightly.  
  
"Did you want something?" Eli asked. Jessie nodded.  
  
"Dad said pizza will be here in 15 minutes." Jessie said before heading out the door, she then abruptly turned around. "Oh yea, he said he wants to see the work you guys finished after we eat." As if taking a surveilance around the room there was no work that was done to be seen. She giggled and left, closing the door behind her.  
  
"Ah damnit."  
  
------- End of Chapter Two: A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that...I know it's pretty slow and short this chapter but I thought I'd end it on a funny note even though it's not that funny. I would really appreciate any reviews or comments anyone has! I will take flames, if they're within reason of course. LOL  
  
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the next chapter! 


	3. Untitlted

Losing Grip Chapter 3:  
  
A/N: Okay so I'm changing to ages of Grace. Grace is 15, and Evan and Eli are both seniors. Grace is a sophomore. I'm also trying to use another style of writing.tell me which one you like better!  
  
Chapter 3:  
  
And that was the faithful day in which Evan and Eli became pretty good friends. It is now a month later, and the story will be told in their different perspectives. Not just from me you know. Yes I am revealing myself to you now as simply the narrator, the person telling the story. Mind you, it's really Evan's story but hey she never said I couldn't talk about me. So I'm Shane West, an average teenage girl telling you a good story. What I hope is a good story anyways..so on with the story.  
  
Grace's POV:  
  
Evan was over again today. She's always over! I mean isn't she supposed to be my friend? I met her first, maybe I'm not exactly sure about that but....it doesn't mean she has to hang out with Eli all the time. Okay, so what if they're both seniors? And they both happen to like the same music. And they both play instruments. Yes I get the point now. *Sigh* I'm not sure if I really like Eli, I mean he is the most popular guy in school, who wouldn't like him? Of course Evan doesn't like him. She tells me that whenever I ask her. Of course I ask her almost all the time, but she seems to forget that I've asked her ten-thousand times already.  
  
"Hey Grace!" Evan said, settling down on the floor of Grace's room. She took out a new burned CD presenting it to me. "Here are the songs you wanted." She placed the CD in her CD player.  
  
"Thanks Ev." I smiled hesitantly of course. I wanted to ask her, but she would noticed. Evan notices everything, especially people's reactions.  
  
"What's wrong?" She said leaning forward with a worried look on her face.  
  
"Can I ask you something?" I said, slowly hoping she wouldn't be upset. She nodded earnestly. "Do you like Eli?" She shrugged.  
  
"Yea sure why not? We're friends." She said nonchalantly, before handing her headphones to me.  
  
What's that supposed to mean?  
  
Evan's POV:  
  
Grace asked me a funny thing today, again. She's always asking me. I wonder why?  
  
"Do you like Eli?" I wanted to laugh. Me...like Eli? Maybe as a friend but as a boyfriend? I mean who would want to be my boyfriend anyways? I'm not the type, I may be friends with a lot of guys but I'm not girlfriend material. I can tell you that. I mean I practically dress like a guy myself.  
  
I'm not the type of girl who dresses up in dresses and skirts, and can actually tell the difference between them. But I've put that past me, I would much rather be comfortable than be wearing underwear which goes into my butt crack. I mean I see all these girls wearing thongs and high heeled shoes. Is it really worth the trouble? Who's going to look at you anyway? Ehhh just plain black pants and a hoodie are enough for me.  
  
All those girls want Eli, I mean what's so good about him. He drinks, eats, and drinks, and eats. That's pretty much it from what I've seen. Okay so he's one of my best friend's here in Chicago now but still. He's very lazy from what I can tell. Yea, yea I'm lazy too, I never said I wasn't. I guess to them Eli's another hot popular guy to chase. All he dates are the bimbos with their "stylist" barely-there clothes and it-takes- hours-to-get-perfect-hair. They never talk on their dates, of what I'm aware of anyway, all they do is make-out. Ugh, spare me the details please Eli. That's one thing about being friends with guys. They always want to tell you details.  
  
But enough talking about things I don't wanna know. Today was a pretty good day, besides that whole weird Grace asking me thing. In Pys Ed, we won our volleyball game, again. Third in a row. We'll be going onto the championships again, I know it's not the school team but hey, I get points for winning! Spraining my thumb was worth it.  
  
I turned the corner to meet Eli, where I met him everyday. My favorite part of the day actually, not having to see his friends and other skinny giggly girls he was always there alone.  
  
"Hey." I said grinning. He knew what had happened he always knew.  
  
"Lemme guess. You won your game?" Eli said, his eyes sparkling. I nodded.  
  
"Of course. I sprained my thumb though. You know what happened? I wasn't even paying attention and the ball flew right at me and I just hit it, and it hit the girl in front of me in the face! I knocked her glasses right off." I felt bad but it was just hilarious. I didn't laugh of course, I think I was more hurt than her. Eli laughed.  
  
"Is your thumb okay?" He said looking at my hand. I nodded, moving my thumb a little even though it was painful. Ehh..just another dent in my banged-up body. Who cares?  
  
-------------------End of Chapter 3-----------------------  
  
A/N: So what did you think? I used a whole different style this time, because i'm thinking the other ones are pretty boring. I put a lot of sarcastic thoughts into it. Mostly my own thoughts but that's okay.  
  
A new character, Shane West. No it's not Eli. No it's not a guy. It's a girl! HEHE she's the narrator. Got the idea from my friend Sara who's also writing a OAA fanfic. Shane is her main character. So our characters are different but they have the same first name! :-) Please review and tell me what you think! 


	4. Is she kidding?

Chapter Four:  
  
Well its me, Shane again. Of course the story is far from over, so a school dance is coming up. I wonder who's going to ask who?  
  
Eli's POV: Sometimes it just pisses me off that all everyone talks about here is the dance. Yes we have it once a year, yes its the biggest social event besides the prom, but is it all that exciting? All the girls in my crowd are pouring over those stupid girl magazines. All the guys are checking out which girls to ask to the dance. Don't get me wrong I'm going to go of course. Last year I went with this girl who was obsessed over me, apparently my friends thought she was "hot" so I asked her. Well I'm pretty sure, more than half the girls in school are obsessed with me. It's funny actually.  
  
I would totally like to just go alone, but then I would be the laughingstock of school. In what universe does the most popular guy in school go alone to a school dance? Especially an event as big as this one. It's not even a big formal thing, I guess I will have to find someone. God, I wish Carla were here. Well at least it's a good thing I'm not thinking of her as much. Evan's pretty much kept my mind of a lot of troubling things. She's a great friend. She's pretty much the only girl friend I have. I mean, she's pretty cool for a girl. The usual girls I know are always flirting with me. I think Evan would rather die than flirt with me. Ha.  
  
Jessie's POV: I'm so excited about the Winter Festival Dance. This is going to my first time there. Katie has already asked me to go with her. What am I going to wear???  
  
Evan's POV: The school's pretty much buzzing about the Winter Festival Dance thing. It's supposedly a whole big thing where everyone dresses up semi-formally and hangs out. Basically it's a whole new level of a popularity contest to see who goes with who. For the nosy people anyway. It's ridiculous really, I'd rather just go to have fun. I mean who cares who's dating who? Back in New York the dances were all raving contests and everyone just hung out in regular clothes. Rarely anyone showed up with a date, except for the marked couples.  
  
Well, I volunteered to be on the dance committee. Why not? They needed help with the decorations. Everyone really already has it all planned. I met this really nice girl, Nicola. A popular girl but a lot less nosier, and not as bitchy. Heh. She forced to join with her. So I'm going force Eli too to come early and decorate with me. He's been complaining for the last week about how much he doesn't want a date. Apparently they follow him around like a love-sick puppy. I rolled my eyes at that.  
  
"You have such a big ego." I said, whacking Eli upside the head with his pillow. Laughing at his face of mocked hurt I hit him again. And that turned into an expected full-fledged pillow fight.  
  
I won of course. Ha.  
  
Grace POV: I've been dressing better, and wearing make-up to school for the last week but still no one has asked me to the dance. I really want to go, but I won't if no one askes me. That's just pathetic. I guess I am just too ugly and fat to attend a social event like this one. It would be so embarassing to come in without a date.  
  
God, am I really that ugly to not even get a date? *sigh*  
  
Evan's POV: Oh no! I need to talk to Grace. Rumors of Eli's step-sister have been flying all over a school about how desperate she is, dressing like a slut and wearing tons of make-up. I rarely listen to gossip but this one bit the big one. Everyone is school is talking about it. Sometimes, high school is so brutal.  
  
And some girls are plain bitches. *sigh* Why are people so immature?  
  
Jessie's POV: I hope Grace doesn't hear what all these people are saying about her. It's awful, people are just too cruel.  
  
Meanwhile....  
  
"Grace?" Evan said hesitantly seeing the girl hunched over in sobs on her bed.  
  
Grace looked up, tears running down her face, her heavy black mascara leaking buckets down.  
  
"Oh here." Evan handed Grace a tissue which Grace took and wiped under her eyes, leaving huge black smudges.  
  
"Do I really look like a slut?" She said desperately, tears threatening to fall again. Evan winced. She had seen Grace's outfits, they were all revealing and she had no idea how Lily had let her out of the house dressed like that.  
  
"A little but you know what? You're not a slut and you just made a bad decision. I'll help you with your clothes and make-up." Evan declared, smiling slightly.  
  
Grace's POV: Is this some sort of sick joke? Is she kidding???? 


End file.
